Where There Is No Doctor 2011 255
Additional Supplies
for the Well-Prepared Midwife or Birth Attendant
Flashlight (torch).
Fetoscope—or fetal
stethoscope—for listening
to the baby’s heartbeat
through the mother’s belly.
Suction bulb for sucking
mucus out of the baby’s
nose and mouth.
Blunt-tipped scissors for cutting the
cord before the baby is all the way
born (extreme emergency only).
Sterile syringe and needles.
Two clamps (hemostats) for
clamping the umbilical cord or
clamping bleeding veins from
tears of birth opening.
Several injections of ergonovine,
oxytocin, or tablets of misoprostol
(see p. 390 and 391).
HIV medicines for mother and
baby if mother or father has HIV
(see p. 398).
Rubber or plastic gloves (that
can be sterilized by boiling, see
p. 74) to wear while examining
the woman, while the baby
is coming out, when sewing
tears in the birth opening, and
for catching and examining
afterbirth.
Sterile needle and gut thread for
sewing tears in the birth opening.
Tetracycline or
erythromycin eye
ointment for the baby’s
eyes to prevent dangerous
infection (see p. 221).